Upcoming Contest Deadlines

G&A: The Contest Blog
4.15.22

With the end of the month right around the corner, get a head start on submitting to contests with a deadline of April 30. These awards include opportunities for poets writing first or second books, or living in Inland Southern California, and for fiction writers interested in magical realism. All contests offer a cash prize of $1,000 or more with one including the extra perk of a weeklong stay in an Italian castle!

Beloit Poetry Journal Adrienne Rich Award for Poetry: A prize of $1,500 and publication in Beloit Poetry Journal is given annually for a single poem. Jane Hirshfield will judge. All entries are considered for publication. Entry fee: $15.

Desperate Literature Short Fiction Prize: A prize of €1,500 (approximately $1,694) and a weeklong residency at the Civitella Ranieri Foundation’s castle in the Umbria region of Italy will be given annually for a work of short fiction. Natasha Brown, Anton Hur, Ottessa Moshfegh, and Joanna Walsh will judge. Entry fee: €20 (approximately $23).

Ghost Story Supernatural Fiction Award: A prize of $1,500 and publication on the Ghost Story website is given twice yearly for a short story with a supernatural or magical realism theme. The winning work will also be published in volume 3 of the anthology 21st Century Ghost Stories. The editors will judge. Entry fee: $20.

Inlandia Institute Hillary Gravendyk Prizes: Two prizes of $1,000 each, publication by the Inlandia Institute, and 20 author copies are given annually for a poetry collection by a U.S. resident and a poetry collection by a poet residing in Inland Southern California, including Riverside and San Bernardino counties and any non-coastal area of Southern California, from Death Valley to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. Stacey Callies, Megan Gravendyk-Estrella, and Charles Legere will judge. All entries are considered for publication. Entry fee: $20. 

Oversound Chapbook Prize: A prize of $1,000, publication by Oversound, and 25 author copies is given annually for a poetry chapbook. Sawako Nakayasu will judge. Entry fee: $18 (which includes a subscription to Oversound).

Poetry International Prize: A prize of $1,000 and publication in Poetry International is given annually for a single poem. Kevin Prufer will judge. All entries are considered for publication. Entry fee: $15.  

Trio House Press Award for First or Second Book: A prize of $1,000, publication by Trio House Press, and 20 author copies is given annually for a first or second poetry collection. Steve Healey will judge. Entry fee: $25.

Tupelo Press Berkshire Prize: A prize of $3,000, publication by Tupelo Press, and 20 author copies is given annually for a first or second poetry collection. All entries are considered for publication. Entry fee: $30.

University of Pittsburgh Press Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: A prize of $5,000 and publication by University of Pittsburgh Press is given annually for a debut poetry collection. Entry fee: $25.  

Winning Writers Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction and Essay Contest: Two prizes of $3,000 each, two-year gift certificates for membership to the literary database Duotrope, and publication on the Winning Writers website are given annually for a short story and an essay. Mina Manchester will judge. Unpublished and previously published works are eligible. Entry fee: $20. 

Visit the contest websites for complete guidelines, and check out the Grants & Awards database and Submission Calendar for more contests in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. 
 

On a Sentence

The Time Is Now
4.14.22

“I’m interested in [Leilani’s] sentences for their expressive, controlled looseness and flexibility; for the way that syntax blurs into scene; for the sense, always, that their shapes are responsive to the psychology of her narrator,” writes Garth Greenwell in “On a Sentence by Raven Leilani,” an essay diving into the particulars of the novelist’s sentences, which was published in the Spring 2022 issue of the Sewanee Review. “As I pour my attention into them, they seem to deepen and expand, inexhaustible.” Whose sentences do you admire most? Inspired by Greenwell’s thorough and passionate analysis, write an essay about your favorite writer’s sentences. Try to break down the root of your fascination by quoting specific sections from your favorite works.

Drafting

The Time Is Now
4.13.22

“What is revealed by the early manuscripts of classic novels?” asks Hephzibah Anderson in an article published on BBC Culture, in which first drafts of famous novelists like Virginia Woolf, Marcel Proust, and F. Scott Fitzgerald are examined. Woolf’s manuscripts reveal a writer radically rethinking the end of her iconic novel, Mrs. Dalloway, while Proust’s drafts show liberally crossed-out and annotated sections as well as a key rethinking of a central image: the madeleine, which originally began as a slice of toast and a cup of tea. This week try a different strategy for a first draft and write a story out of order. Jot down three crucial scenes from a story you’ve been wanting to begin. Then, at random, pick one and write a draft of that scene. How does this help relieve the pressure of drafting a whole new story from beginning to end?

Shifting Subjectivities

The Time Is Now
4.12.22

In a profile of Tracy K. Smith by Renée H. Shea, published in the March/April 2015 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, the Pulitzer Prize–winning poet discusses the “shifting subjectivities” she discovered while writing her memoir, Ordinary Light (Knopf, 2015), in which she includes stories from her childhood. “Tracy the citizen was allowed to engage with these private stories, just as Tracy the mother was allowed in at times,” says Smith. Consider two identities that you hold, then write a poem from one of these perspectives. What is left out, and what is let in?

Deadline Nears for New Ohio Review Literary Prizes 

G&A: The Contest Blog
4.8.22

Submissions are currently open through for the New Ohio Review Literary Prizes. Given annually by New Ohio Review, the three awards honor a poem or group of poems, a short story, and an essay. Kim Addonizio will judge in poetry, Madeline ffitch will judge in fiction, and Melissa Febos will judge in nonfiction. The winning writers will each receive $1,500 and publication in the journal. 

Submit a poem or group of poems of up to six pages or a story or essay of up to 20 pages with a $22 entry fee, which includes a subscription to New Ohio Review, by April 15. All entries are considered for publication. Visit the website for complete guidelines.

New Ohio Review is published twice yearly by the creative writing program of Ohio University and is based in Athens, Ohio. Previous contest winners include poet Emily Lee Luan, fiction writer Nicole VanderLinden, and nonfiction writer Tania De Rozario. 

Find a Writing Contest

The Grants & Awards database includes details about every writing contest that we’ve published in Poets & Writers Magazine during the past year. We carefully review the practices and policies of each contest before including it, making the Grants & Awards database the most trusted resource for legitimate writing contests available anywhere.

Search the database

The Sound of Music

The Time Is Now
4.7.22

“My problem isn’t writer’s block—it’s writer’s doubt,” writes Diana Marie Delgado in an installment of Writers Recommend in which she explains how a hypnotic and emotionally swelling piece of music helps inspire her writing. “If I feel overwhelmed, I listen to William Basinski’s ‘dlp 1.1’ from The Disintegration Loops,” she writes. This week, write about a piece of music that helps you enter the headspace for writing. What’s the story behind the music, and what about it, specifically, helps you write?

Con Artists

The Time Is Now
4.6.22

From New York socialite con artist Anna Delvey to Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of the fraudulent health technology company Theranos, to Simon Leviev, who allegedly conned millions of dollars from women through the dating app Tinder, these actors of true crime have dominated the subject of several television shows, documentaries, and movies. Inspired by these dangerous tricksters, write a story with a con artist as the protagonist. What do they think and sound like? Do they have an unrecognizable accent or use popular social media platforms to connect with their victims?

Tourniquet of Concrete

The Time Is Now
4.5.22

“[Nashville] is hot chicken on sopping white bread with green pickle / chips—sour to balance prismatic, flame-colored spice / for white people,” writes Tiana Clark in her poem “Nashville,” published in the New Yorker in 2017. The poem interlaces personal experience and anecdotes with a historical overview of the Southern city’s development. “I-40 bisected the black community / like a tourniquet of concrete. There were no highway exits. / 120 businesses closed,” writes Clark. Write a poem about a city you’ve lived in. How does your time there intersect with the history of the town? Use research to find significant events that take your poem to a deeper place beyond your own life.

Deadline Approaches for Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grants

G&A: The Contest Blog
4.1.22

The Whiting Foundation is accepting submissions for its annual Creative Nonfiction Grants. Given to writers “in the process of completing a book-length work of deeply researched and imaginatively composed nonfiction,” up to ten grantees will receive $40,000 each. The grant is meant to help sustain multiyear book projects that are mid-process and require a significant amount of focused research. Writers who have a project under contract with a publisher in the United States, the United Kingdom, or Canada are eligible to apply. 

Using only the online submission system, submit a completed application, which includes uploading a fully executed publishing contract, the original project proposal that led to the contract, a writing sample of up to 25,000 words from the nonfiction book-in-progress, a résumé, a statement about the funds and time will be spent, a list of all sources of funding received for the book to date, and a letter of support from the book’s editor or publisher, by April 25. There is no entry fee. Visit the website for complete guidelines. 

Through this grant the Whiting Foundation aims to support nonfiction books “written with an artful sensitivity to complexity and nuance,” with the belief that these works are essential “in shaping the way we understand the world.” The 2022 grantees will be announced in the fall. Recent creative nonfiction grantees include Rebecca Clarren, Ashley D. Farmer, Kevin González, Sangamithra Iyer, Albert Samaha, Brandon Shimoda, Walter Thompson-Hernández, and Salamishah Tillet. Through this grant the Whiting Foundation aims to support nonfiction books “written with an artful sensitivity to complexity and nuance,” with the belief that these works are essential “in shaping the way we understand the world.” The 2022 grantees will be announced in the fall. Recent creative nonfiction grantees include Rebecca Clarren, Ashley D. Farmer, Kevin González, Sangamithra Iyer, Albert Samaha, Brandon Shimoda, Walter Thompson-Hernández, and Salamishah Tillet. 

Find a Writing Contest

The Grants & Awards database includes details about every writing contest that we’ve published in Poets & Writers Magazine during the past year. We carefully review the practices and policies of each contest before including it, making the Grants & Awards database the most trusted resource for legitimate writing contests available anywhere.

Search the database

Film Studies

The Time Is Now
3.31.22

In “The Romans in Films,” an essay from his 1957 book Mythologies, Roland Barthes analyzes Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s 1953 film Julius Caesar by focusing on the presence of fringes in the hair of the characters. “Some have them curly, some straggly, some tufted, some oily, all have them well combed, and the bald are not admitted, although there are plenty to be found in Roman history,” he writes. “What then is associated with these insistent fringes? Quite simply the label of Roman-ness.” Inspired by Barthes’s cheeky analysis of the believability of this ancient Roman period film, write an essay about a film you have criticized. Describe scenes of the film using unique details to illustrate what inspires your argument.

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - blogs